Coffee roasting/crafting Quarterly Blog

To be Light Roast or to be Dark Roast, that is the question.-written by Brandon Runk

There exists and age old adage, or maybe just a belief that coffee should be roasted dark. That this strong, robust taste stems from the coffee beans being charred beyond belief. Roasting coffee brings out the flavors of numerous nations locked inside this tiny bean. The goal then, I believe of any coffee roasters are to bring to "light" the origin characteristic of this green bean to your taste buds! For example, does the roast of this bean represent the coffee growing regions well? These regions are very distinct, and they, (America’s, Central and South, Africa, and coffee growing regions of Asia) will handle different roasts in order to pull out these innate delicacies.

Take Course Coffee Roasters Ugandan Bugisu AA for example. This coffee, with prominent notes of Peach, Apricot and Hops, before selling, is roasted to three different levels. We let the coffee sit for three days, and then cup each one. It is not until this point that the preferred roast is tweaked with. Most of our coffee is roasted lighter, that is a preference of ours, but we also believe it enables the coffee drinker to experience the coffee’s full potential. I believe that this bean (Ugandan Bugisu) loses its unique origin characteristics when roasted beyond first crack. As soon as the first crack is completed, the bean is finished roasting. We have found the aforementioned notes in this coffee see above, linger in your mouth, allowing you to travel with us to this region of the world, experiencing the excitement we get in delivering this coffee to you!In conclusion, we believe the question should not be is a lighter roast a better cup of coffee? Rather, is it appropriately roasted for the consumer to experience all that they should from the coffee? Truthfully it is up to you, the consumer of quality crafted coffee. That preference is lies within the palet of your mouth. But it is our aim to present you with all that we can through roasting coffee!